Hell House by Richard Matheson

2.5/5

As most of you know, I am not a connoisseur of horror.  I am a huge chicken. I don’t watch horror movies or shows, and I don’t read horror books. I’ve read The Talisman and Desperation by Stephen King and enjoyed both but while they are “horror” they are more creepy to me than actually scary. Those of you that follow me on Facebook are well aware that while reading this book I was super freaked out because I made the mistake of reading the book, at night, alone. Terrible decision, really.

The book is about four people who go to the Belasco House, or “Hell House” commonly referred to as the Everest of haunted houses. In the 1920s the owner of the house, Emeric Belasco, would invite guests to come and live in excess. The best food, drink, and carnal pleasures, which eventually descended into utter chaos up to, and including, murder and cannibalism. A group of people went to cleanse the house two times prior to the current expedition which occurs in 1970. The four people are a Florence Tanner, a spiritualist, Benjamin Franklin Fischer, a medium who had survived an attempt to cleanse the house thirty years prior, Dr. Lionel Barrett and his wife Edith. What exactly Lionel was wasn’t entirely clear. It seems as though he is a paranormal physicist. The idea was that they were to examine Hell House in order to determine whether or not there is life after death for an old man swiftly approaching the end of his life. Once in the house, Tanner, Fischer, and Barrett disagree constantly on what is causing the paranormal events until the book’s conclusion.

                The book itself was a compelling read. I really wanted to know who, if anyone, survived. The paranormal scenes were very scary to me, but I find they lacked intensity as the book continued on. The paranormal events were increasing but I found them less scary as I read on which was unfortunate. I liked all of the characters except for Edith Barrett, but even her I found more interesting as the book continued and I liked her by the end (by her end, or by the end of the book?! You won’t know unless you read it!).

                So here is why I rated it so low. It gave a distinctly 1800s feel but was set in 1970. It struck me as very old timey and I found it kind of incongruous when I was reading. I also found a lot of the language unnecessarily stiff and formal, which also lent to its old timey feel. I had to remind myself that it was set in 1970, not 1870, frequently. There was a lot of pseudo-scientific language as well that pulled me out of the book because I had to work to think about what he was explaining. I was aiming to be scared, not aiming to dig up a comparable volume of all of the science vocabulary contained in a tenth grade text book.

Another mark against it was that I feel like Matheson used nudity excessively for the shock value, rather than for the story. I understand where the nudity comes in, as the whole premise of Hell House is that it is the house haunted by victims of extreme depravity and excess in all of its’ forms. The spirits are actively trying to play on the secret wishes and desires of the four guests, But I think the scenes would have been better if it were a slower disrobing, more predatory, more stalking rather than the character in question stripping and aggressively jumping on their victim. There are several posts on Facebook right now mocking male writers and how they write women and Matheson is so, so guilty of the ridiculousness.

If it hadn’t been legitimately scary, I would have probably rated it lower, but it was literally pulse-pounding at some points for me. I frequently had to stop, put it down, play with the dog or scroll Facebook for a couple of minutes before resuming when I was reading it last night. I would recommend it for a cheap horror thrill, but it wouldn’t immediately jump to my mind as a more general recommendation. That being said, I’ve already found a new home for this book so be gone with ye!

Sidenote: there is an entire subreddit of men writing women which can be found at r/menwritingwomen but this is basically what I meant: